Health authority to lift services at emergency wards

By ELIAS LARI
THE Western Highlands health authority is looking at improving its emergency wards’ service at the Mt Hagen Provincial Hospital.
The hospital is trialing a triage system aimed at improving the emergency care system.
This system was developed by emergency physicians Dr John McKup and Dr Scotty Kandelyo, the deputy chief emergency physician for the Highlands and two consultant emergency physicians from Australia, Dr Rob Mitchell and Dr Colin Banks.
Local registrars Dr Lucas Kondi and Dr John Gabriel were also doing research on emergency care which would help in putting together a final triage programme for the hospital.
This system was aimed at identifying which patients needed most urgent care or treatment.
The system has three levels or categories so clinicians know which patients should be seen first.
When patients present themselves at the emergency department, they are identified and grouped into these categories.
Category one patients were to be seen immediately, within five minutes, category two for urgent patients to be seen in 15 minutes and category three for non-urgent ones.
According to Mitchell, identification and grouping of patients would help to reduce morbidity and mortality rates.
Mitchell said there were other associated activities as well such as the introduction of new registration forms for patients to help improve data collection which would then help improve the flow of patients through the emergency department.
The data collected would be coded and entered into an electronic database for easy access and identification of patients and their medical history, should they return.